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Two Pens's insight:

God infographic on how people trust blog information over other social media options.

If you blog you’re always on the search to increase your blog traffic. There are a slew of secondary networks and communities that provide a lot of value.

Two Pens's insight:

Good that Steven Hughes recommends Scoop-It, obviously a fave for me. But Rand Fishkin, smarty CEO of SEO Moz has also started a good one called Inbound.org. Not familiar with BizSugar yet. Not enough time in the day.

LinkedIn is the most popular social media tool among the nation's fastest-growing private companies, according to a study by the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, Center for Marketing Research, under the direction of researcher Nora Ganim Barnes, PhD.

More than 8 in 10 companies listed on the 2012 Inc. 500 (81% of them) use the professional networking site, up from 73% a year earlier. Meanwhile, the proportion of Inc. 500 companies using Facebook has declined, from 74% in 2011, to 67% in 2012.

For people selling to business, the key is to figure out how to make Linked In work for your audience. I like starting or participating in groups that are relevant to what you do (but only if you put the time in to make yourself a contributing, thoughtful, and insightful participant).

Consume writing voraciously, and you will absorb writing skills by osmosis. You will come to appreciate an unexpected word or turn of phrase. You'll intuitively develop awareness of what makes a story arc engaging or a character tantalizing.

Two Pens's insight:

"Ass in the chair" may not be elegant but it's sure clear. I subscribe to the theory that writing begets writing; the more you do it, the more you get better at it and learn to generate writing before you craft it.

I’m a monthly guest on Tony Martignetti’s Nonprofit Radio (which you already know because you’re a subscriber, right?) and on this last episode we talked about two popular tools: Slideshare and Pinterest.

To me, the most interesting thing here is the highly-focused usefulness of Pinterest. If you happen to be working the correct market with the correct subject matter, it's great. Otherwise, look to other social media.

From super-effective search tricks to Google tools specifically for education to tricks and tips for using Gmail, Google Docs, and Google Calendar, these tricks will surely save you some precious time.

Two Pens's insight:

This is aimed at teachers but the tricks are worth using for any business person.

Sharing your scoops to your social media accounts is a must to distribute your curated content. Not only will it drive traffic and leads through your content, but it will help show your expertise with your followers.

Integrating your curated content to your website or blog will allow you to increase your website visitors’ engagement, boost SEO and acquire new visitors. By redirecting your social media traffic to your website, Scoop.it will also help you generate more qualified traffic and leads from your curation work.

Distributing your curated content through a newsletter is a great way to nurture and engage your email subscribers will developing your traffic and visibility.
Creating engaging newsletters with your curated content is really easy.